Getting mad AND organizing

[cosmolinguist]

I'm wondering where I can find the UK transmasc organizing. (It is probably happening on reddit or bluesky or something that I don't have an account on, I know, sigh.)

Trans mascs/men's specific oppression under the supreme court ruling should be highlighted for itself, not in relation to trans women/fems' oppression, like as an abstract "beards in ladies loos" threat/stunt. (I'm sympathetic to the desire to "gotcha" the incoherent bigotry, but there are transmascs (yes even ones growing facial hair) who are already using the ladies' room because that's the way their safety calculations end up. Also I don't love the idea that beards or any other symbol of masculinity is inherently antithetical to, or exclusive of, femininity.)

Not only do TERFs talk about their "sisters" and "daughters" being swayed into "mutilating their bodies by gender ideology," books discussing this have been international bestsellers. Transphobic writers like Jesse Singal have made a career from anti-transmasculinity as well as transmisogyny.

One of the ways the UKSC ruling seems incoherent (from what I understand, I haven't read it all) is that while it says trans women should be excluded from women's spaces, it also says trans men should be excluded from women's spaces because of the "masculinising" effects of the testosterone we are all presumed to take. (This isn't surprising at least -- the TERFery that informed the decision takes a zero tolerance approach to testosterone -- but it never gets less baffling.)

This leaves trans men/mascs in a very weird position.

For example, can transmascs be removed from women's refuges if they take testosterone because it might "trigger" "survivors" (a status that of course no transmasc person could have, in this worldview)...? And of course I agree that a women's refuge isn't a great place for a transmasc person! But neither can we be left to just fend for ourselves around domestic violence.

A friend joked that if we can't be held in either male or female prison populations does this mean we can't be jailed, but their partner pointed out that transmasc people would likely just be held in solitary confinement.

Anyway. It occurred to me that most of the trans community I have -- certainly the activisty part -- is transfem, so before and after yesterday's protest I made some efforts to find both more trans advocacy and more transmasc community.

I'm in more WhatsApp groups and Discord servers now (sigh...especially because discord has found a new way to be inaccessible for me today! I literally can't scroll downwards!q), but I have plans to join some in-person gatherings this week too.

Comments

Sending strength

[jesse_the_k]

...and the forlorn hope that someone creates an accessible Discord client.

[otter]

There is no way to make any of their garbage talk make sense in the real world. My brother was at a protest today and sent a short video from the state capitol. https://www.fiftyfifty.one/

While I'm aware of about half a dozen transmasc people in my work/social circles, I know quite a few more transfem folk than that. There is value in smaller, more specific circles within the broader movement.

I'd love to share coherent thoughts on this, but it's nap time. Sending love and expressing solidarity.

[cosmolinguist]

Coherent thoughts are welcome at any time, but never mandatory. :)

I'm glad your brother was able to go and protest.

[angelofthenorth]

There are transmasc people organising on bluesky certainly

[cosmolinguist]

That's good to know...if difficult for me because I really don't want another social media account but...

[sfred]

I am also interested in this. I'm in a trans masc Facebook group but it's not very activisty.

[cosmolinguist]

I'm happy to let you know, if I find/do anything useful?

[sfred]

Thank you, that would be good.

[silveradept]

I don't know where the organizing is happening, but it's probably on inaccessible platforms.

TERFiness always comes back to the idea that there is such a thing as an ideal woman's body, and that only (white) cis women (performing femininity) get to decide what it is. They'd be more honest if they said "our philosophy is that we get to decide and you can only supplicate to see if you're in the club today."